Zimbabwe & Zambia
Zimbabwe opposition: "May God help Zambia"

afrol News, 27 April - Visiting Zimbabwe, Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa on Thursday hailed last month's presidential election result and urged Zimbabweans to bury political rivalry and unite to fight the hunger facing the nation. The Zimbabwean opposition is outraged by Mwanawasa's "misinformed statements" and charges him with complicity and having blood on his hands.

In his speech made in Masvingo, President Mwanawasa said that any Zimbabwean who still was thinking of fighting the other politically - a clear address to the opposition - effectively becomes irrelevant to national development. "As your neighbour, we in Zambia say, your presidential election was free and fair and we are glad to note that you are going ahead with your activities in peace and harmony," he said. Referring to the international opinion the elections were rigged, Mwanawasa says Zimbabweans were "not required to give any apology to anybody or to be told by anybody the choice of who should lead you." 

In an official statement by Zimbabwean opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the party states its disgust of Mwanawasa's comments. "The MDC is dismayed that Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa has endorsed last month's presidential election. We are further shocked that Mwanawasa is under the mistaken impression that there is now peace and harmony in the country," MDC spokesman Learnmore Jongwe says.

President Mwanawasa on his visit to Harare was also quoted asking Zimbabwean people to bury political rivalry and tackle hunger together. "We wish to put it on record that the food crisis had been put on the agenda" of the talks between the ruling party ZANU-PF and MDC, Jongwe comments, "but was removed after the ZANU-PF government said it did not need MDC's help to tackle the problem."

- If Mwanawasa believes that national development can be brought about by killing over 120 Zimbabweans and displacing, torturing and victimising over 300 000 innocent people in this country then he can keep that brand of national development to himself, the MDC spokesman tells the President of Zimbabwe's northern neighbour. "What is required for national development in the country is political stability and Robert Mugabe with his penchant for violence cannot provide that stability."

- Unlike Mwanawasa, Zimbabweans are not fooled by the hypocrisy of the ZANU-PF leadership that has constantly boasted of degrees in violence, Jongwe goes on. "The people of Zimbabwe today are struggling to make ends meet. The people of Zimbabwe need food, jobs, affordable health care and education for their children not violence, if Mwanawasa does not understand this then may God help Zambia."

Jongwe also mentions the ongoing struggle by the MDC to contest the March election result at the Zimbabwean High Court. "Stability can only be restored through a return to legitimacy. This can only come about through fresh, free and fair elections," he repeats the well-known MDC's standpoint.

Zambian President Mwanawasa sees it the other way, speaking out of experience. Also the elections that brought him to power at the end of last year were highly contested, 70 percent of the Zambian electorate voting against Mwanawasa. They resulted in opposition protests, accumulating in two days of unrest, legal action, muted celebrations and tear-gassed protesters. 

According to Mwanawasa, however, the Zambian opposition immediately had realised that they had a country to look after and joined the government in developing the country. "It happened in my country but I am glad that we are now working together," he said, recommending the same for Zimbabwe. 

The MDC is not impressed by President Mwanawasa's "misinformed" statements. "While Mwanawasa is waxing lyrical about peace in Zimbabwe, MDC is today mourning its provincial secretary for Chitungwiza Province Davies Mtetwa who died this morning from the wounds he sustained after he was tortured by the CIO just before the presidential elections, spokesman Jongwe says."All those leaders and individuals who are backing ZANU-PF's murderous agenda must know that they have blood on their hands and that one day, justice will be done," he concludes.

The only African leader to have taken a clear stance against the March elections is Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade. "Electoral laws were changed days before the election. We can't call that an election," Wade was quoted as saying by the 'New York Times' earlier this month. Spokesman Jongwe immediately called President Wade "the light at the end of the African tunnel," while the Zimbabwe government reacted by saying Wade had sold out Zimbabwe to the West.

Sources: Based on MDC, Zim govt. and afrol archives

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